Joe Napsha stories, Page 114

The state’s Amtrak passenger rail service will be impacted when the Pennsylvania Turnpike’s $450 million annual payment to PennDOT plunges by $400 million three years from now, a PennDOT official warned Thursday. “Amtrak service is in jeopardy, as we know it today,” even without the pending funding crisis, Jennie Granger,...

Irwin officials gave the green light to transfer a liquor license from West Newton to a proposed restaurant on Main Street that will feature tacos and tequila. Council on Wednesday unanimously approved the request of Greg Olszewski, a Penn Township businessman, and Matthew Mitchell of North Huntingdon, to transfer a...

Irwin Borough is looking to hire its third manager in two years. Council accepted Valerie Morton’s resignation, effective June 25. Morton, who has been the borough manager since September 2017, said she is leaving to take a job in private industry in Moon Township. Morton was hired in December 2016...

North Huntingdon officials will hold a public hearing this week on a request from Verizon Wireless for a variance to build a cell phone tower, an effort that is the target of a lawsuit by the township. The commissioners scheduled a required public hearing for 6:30 p.m. Thursday on a...

Norwin needs to either fix the high school swimming pool and amenities to make it safe and bring it up to current standards or replace it. While the message was somewhat simple from Lancaster architect Edwin Wallover, who conducted a feasibility study of the pool, fixtures, equipment and building, the...

Saint Vincent College plans to announce its new president Friday at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, the college said. Brother Norman Hippsannounced in April he would leave the position at the end of June. Hipps, 75, has been the Unity-based college’s president for nine years. J. Christopher Donahue, chairman of the...

A group of 200-to-250 members of the Marine Corps League of Pennsylvania are expected to descend upon the Greensburg area next week for the organization’s 74th annual convention. Major John Urban, who has served eight years in the Marines, will be the keynote speaker in the convention that runs from...

A report by the Southwest Partnership for Mobility, chaired by state and local officials, calls for stable statewide public transportation funding without relying on the Turnpike Commission giving PennDOT $450 million a year. Providing a sustainable funding source would ease the Turnpike Commission’s debt burden, as well as the need...

Norwin School Board will meet Monday to vote on a 2019-20 budget that would include raising taxes by 3% for most of the district’s property owners and transfer $1.1 million from the fund balance to cover a shortfall. Five votes are needed to approve the budget. But during a meeting...

Uniontown firefighters battled blazes at more than one house in Uniontown late Friday night, a Fayette County 911 supervisor said. The fire was reported at 336 E. Main St., at about 9:20 p.m. The 911 supervisor said that city police said multiple buildings were on fire. The initial report from...

The Greater Westmoreland County Labor Council will discuss the impact of the 2020 Census on the county during a meeting at 7 p.m. June 17 at Hempfield Fire Co. No. 2, 421 Thornton Ave., Hempfield. Sheila Beasley, the Pittsburgh Partnership Specialist for the U.S. Census Bureau, will provide information about...

More than 500 custom and vintage cars, trucks and motorcycles are expected to be displayed at the Norwin Elks Annual Father’s Day Charity Car Cruise planned for 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 16 at the Norwin Elks off Sandy Hill Road, Manor. The event has grown from less than...

A taco and tequila restaurant is planned for downtown Irwin this fall, run by a man who already owns two other restaurants in Irwin. Businessman David Caruso, who owns Burgher Burgher on Fourth Street and dO wood fired, featuring pizza, on Fifth Street, plans to open Gato in September in...

A workshop to train people how to intervene to prevent suicides is planned for Aug. 8-9 in Smithton. Living Works, an organization with a base in Fayetteville, N.C., describes its Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training workshop as “suicide first aid.” It teaches participants to recognize when someone may have thoughts...

Sheetz Inc. has applied to sell alcohol at its North Huntingdon convenience store on Route 30, which is near a Norwin elementary school. The request from the Altoona-based convenience store chain at its store located across Carpenter Lane from the Stewartsville Elementary School is pending before the Pennsylvania Liquor Control...

The county’s transit operator wants to expand its park-and-ride lot in North Huntingdon so more commuters could catch a bus to Pittsburgh, but work will not start until next year, transit officials said. The Westmoreland County Transit Authority wants to add 55 spaces to its parking lot along Route 30...

For those who doubt the importance of one vote, let the Norwin School Board race in the GOP primary serve as an educational moment. One vote from the sliver of Allegheny County located in the Norwin School District — which has 30 voters on two streets in White Oak and...

Penn-Trafford’s teachers union wants the district to install air conditioning in all classrooms to combat unbearable conditions on hot days in spring and late summer, which create a difficult learning environment, a union official said. “It was 90 degrees in the classrooms in August and September. It was terrible …...

Volunteers continued searching on foot and on all-terrain vehicles in the area around West Jeannette Monday evening in an sweeping effort to find a 21-year-old man reported earlier that afternoon. The searchers, assisted by bloodhounds teams from Greensburg and Bovard, scoured an area off 11th Street and Mapleton Avenue, as...

Alice Ogg loved to cook, bake and make candy — so much so she turned her passion into a profession. She operated her candy and catering business, Alice’s Candy, from her Rillton home in the 1970s and 80s. “She made the candy during the holidays — Christmas and Easter. She...

People who like to walk around Lions Park in North Huntingdon should have a paved trail to get their exercise later this summer. Township commissioners wants to hire a contractor to build an eight-foot-wide paved trail around the perimeter of the park off Robbins Station Road, said Bob Robinson, senior...

The Bushy Run Battlefield’s scenic trails will be the site of the 15th annual Bushy Run Trail 5K Run & Walk at 8:30 a.m. July 14, which will take participants through the historic battlefield along Route 993 in Penn Township. Participants can pre-register by June 23. The cost is $18...

What does Westmoreland County do if two candidates in the May primary are tied for the last spot on the ballot? The winner is determined by the candidates who gets the ball with the No. 1 printed on it when selecting from an opaque jar with two balls in it,...

A Youngwood man was crying and remorseful when he recounted how he stabbed another Youngwood man “a lot” during a fatal robbery for drugs and money in November 2017, a state police trooper testified Thursday. Trooper Brandon Yeager said Michael James Covington Jr., 22, broke down during his interrogation at...